Man fined for Facebook post inciting mosque attacks

Categories: Latest News
Monday July 21 2014
BBC News and the Daily Record both report on the financial penalty levied on a former footballer who posted a comment on Facebook inciting religiously aggravated criminal damage in the days after Drummer Lee Rigby’s murder.
Ryan Harbinson posted a comment on Facebook stating: “Any one up for starting our own series of terrorist attacks, little bit of petroleum would set fire to the mosque nicely.”
His comment was reported by a member of the public who saw the post and became alarmed by it.
During the trial, Harbinson was revealed to be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, following a stabbing attack in 2011, which Falkirk Sherriff Court treated as mitigating circumstances. Sherriff Mundy, told Harbinson
“I am prepared to deal with this by way of a financial penalty. I accept in coming to the amount of your penalty that PTSD was a factor in the commission of this offence.
“It doesn’t excuse it, but it was a factor.
“I also have regard to your background and the traumatic event that you experienced yourself that led to the PTSD.”
Harbinson was fined £1000 by the court but denied a charge of breaching the peace.